KYTV (TV Series) - Format

Format

KYTV combined irreverent sketches and variety elements (such as song and dance routines) with a broad-based satire of the public perception of UK satellite television - that of opportunistic entrepreneurs producing cheap, low quality television in order to exploit viewers.

KYTV was supposedly a low-budget satellite television station named after its alleged owner Sir Kenneth Yellowhammer, and bore a suspicious similarity to Sky Television. The name KYTV is actually a joke itself which becomes more apparent when it is occasionally referred to as "KY Telly", a play on the sexual lubricant KY Jelly.

In the second series KYTV merged with the fictional "BSE Television", just as Sky merged with BSB. The channel's new name was also KYTV: it was decided to take the first two letters of KYTV, the last two of BSETV, and the result was: KYTV. The third series featured parodies of Carlton Television's early logos.

Each episode featured a central theme (for example, a terrorist siege, the Channel Tunnel, or a costume drama) which sketches could revolve around.

Comedic elements included:

• malfunctioning equipment
• rolling news channels with little content or analysis (a similar technique to that later used in Brass Eye)
• sensationalist and dumbed down shows ("Murder. Gruesome, bloody murder. Coming right up, after the break. Tell your neighbours.")
• underpaid, incompetent and amateurish staff
• lavish "showcase sequences" compared to shoddy, makeshift visuals or unfinished sets
• endless repeats of imported or old (and therefore cheap) programmes as an attempt to fill yawning gulfs of airtime
• relentless commercial intrusions, including plugs for shopping channels ("By the way Mike, that's a very smart tie you have on!" "Yes, and it's only £18.99 at Sofa Shop!")

A regular feature was "Mike Flex's Master Quiz", in which contestants typically had to answer one question correctly to win "a château in the Loire". Mike Flex always managed to arrange the questions in such a way that nobody's answer was ever quite right. (Name that Tune: "Beatles, Yellow Submarine!" "Sorry, it was The Beatles, Yellow Submarine. Bad luck.")